Monday, November 26, 2012

Just when
you thought you knew derby, the rules CHANGE!Starting January 1st, 2013, the Women’s Flat Track Derby
Association (WFTDA) is adapting a revised roller derby rule set. You can find
the rule set in length here: http://wftda.com/rules/20130101

Here are some of the big changes you will see in the
2013 season:

LVRG Head Referee, Bob Lloyd

1.One
whistle will start game play simultaneously for both blockers and jammers. This
will eliminate the slow play starts we have been seeing in the past.

2.There
will be NO MORE MINOR PENALTIES!Instead,
some minors from the old rule set will now be upgraded to MAJOR penalties. Some
of these include direction of play blocking, and cutting one opposing blocker
or more than one of your own teammates.

3.Hands,
touching and different contact: with the elimination of the no minors ruling,
players may now touch opponents for up to 3 seconds (without changing their
relative position or knocking them off balance).

So who is in charge of enforcing all of these WFTDA
rules? The referees, or as we call them, our zebras. This year, our zebra pack is lead by WFTDA Certified [head] referee Bob Lloyd. We sat down with Bob Lloyd and asked him a
little bit about the refereeing aspect of derby and how he stared with the
team:

Tell
us about your history with the Lehigh Valley Rollergirls (LVRG):

I started officiating women's flat track
roller derby back in June of 2008. I went to high school with Tortellina
Temptress, a member of LVRG, and came to watch her play. I had been to a
few games, and really enjoyed what I saw. One day, I saw an advertisement
on MySpace (yeah, THAT long ago!) that LVRG was looking for volunteers,
referees, and officials. Right away I sent a message to the league saying
I wanted to come help out. I hadn't been on roller skates in about 15
years, but I really wanted to try something new. 4 years and 80 some
bouts later, here I am! Since I started, I've learned to skate, learned
the sport inside and out, and met hundreds of new, interesting people I would
have never met, otherwise, best of all - I met my wife, Heather, through roller
derby!

How long
does it take to be eligible to be certified? What makes up the
qualifications?

There really isn't a time that it takes to
become certified, it depends on how actively you pursue it, and how well you
officiate. The WFTDA has minimum requirements, which they publish on
their website (WFTDA.com/officiating), but
those are really some bare-minimum requirements. It took me about 2 1/2
years of working actively towards certification, until I felt that I met the
requirements, and the expectations of the WFTDA skaters and officials.
Some officials may take less, or even more, time until they earn their
certification.

Officials are
considered qualified for a certification level based on their performance,
experience, and ability. Officials are reviewed by their peers through
evaluations that are submitted for the official when he/she works a regulation
or sanctioned (ranked) bout. These evaluations are reviewed by a referee
certification committee (made up of skaters and officials from many different
leagues) who votes to award certification to an official, in addition to the
official passing a rules and skating test. Higher level certifications
are available for officials who excel and have a large amount of high level
officiating experience (at tournaments, for example).

What
advice do you have for someone who is intrigued by becoming a Roller Derby
official, but is not sure on how, what, or why they'd pursue such?

Just get out and do it!! It's so
much fun! - Seriously though, we will be having recruitment and meet and
greet sessions at the beginning of the 2013 season, and are always looking for
good, dedicated volunteers. Keep your eye out on Lehigh Valley's home
page for more details about meet and greets and officials recruitment sessions.
If you just can't wait, you can contact the recruitment e-mail for Lehigh
Valley and someone will get in touch with you.

Why would someone want to be a roller derby
official?

Most likely,
they're a glutton for punishment! After that, it's the excitement, the
fast paced action, and the challenge of officiating the hardest sport to officiate. Period. Roller
Derby is a unique sport in the way it's officiated (it doesn't stop for
penalties, like hockey or football do, for starters), and that challenge is
what keeps me coming back for more each season. Also, the ability to meet
so many great people, travel all over to officiate in so many different places,
and to challenge and push yourself are all great reasons why someone would get
into officiating roller derby. At the end of the day, it's rewarding to
know you've done a good job, called a fair and even bout, and given the skaters
the best bouting experience possible. I am definitely proud to be a WFTDA official,
and to be affiliated with Lehigh Valley. But at the end of the day, I
know I've done a great job if no one's noticed me. Part of being a great
official is letting the skaters be the stars of the show, it's their bout,
their sport, I'm just there to make sure it all goes smoothly. Though,
I definitely rock my WFTDA track jacket when it's getting a little chilly
outside.

Monday, November 12, 2012

The Battle of the
Valley (BitV) proved to be a battle of skills, sheer strength and strategy this
past weekend, as four teams, Lehigh Valley’s Special Vixen’s Unit (SVU), New
Jersey Roller Derby (NJRD), Pottstown’s Roller Derby Rockstars (PRDR) and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s
Roller Radicals, met to make their mark in this battle at the end of the 2012 season.The tournament started with Lehigh’s Special
Vixen’s Unit taking on New Jersey Roller Derby.It was a vicious beginning with both teams fighting to gain an early
lead. The New Jersey Roller Derby jammers, such as their star jammer Pixie Bust, was relentless and took command early,
establishing a 10 point lead at the half, with a score of 98-88.

Both teams looked
physically exhausted at the half, but with some restrategizing, the Special
Vixen’s Unit brought a big surprise to New Jersey in the second half. The SVU blockers, led by Captain Tortellina
Temptress, became a more cohesive unit and began to capitalize on their walls
and jam start strategies.Pivots Wayward Stay, D.TainHer and Minerva Steel took command of their packs, which allowed
the Lehigh team to incrementally gain points jam after jam.There was also break out blocking by LVRG’s Phish
Tahko, who commanded the front of her packs to keep NJRD’s jammers from getting
ahead, and blocking by Stella McHurtye, who established herself as a force to
be reckoned with on the track. Also,
Lehigh Valley tournament newcomers, Dixie Freebird, Christie Winkler and NJ
Wrecker, had some great debut tournament performances. After a long fought battle, the SVU team took
the semi win over New Jersey Roller Derby with a score of 198-135. This allowed
the SVU team to advance to the finals to play the winner of the second semi
final bout.

In the second semi
final game of the tournament, the returning 2011 BitV champions, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
Roller Radicals, took on Pottstown’s Roller Derby Rockstars. Pottstown came out strong for this semi final
bout and took immediate control of both the pack speed and lead jammer
status the majority of the first half. Led by defensive blocking by A. Moral and outstanding jamming by Sun Drop, Pottstown looked solid and kept their
lead to end the first half with a 14 point advantage at 84-70. At the start of
the second half of this semi final bout, there were early penalties on the Pottstown
side that allowed WBRR to catch up fast. It was still any team’s game, as Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
experienced many penalties also, losing one of their best skaters to an early
ejection.However, Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre proved
to Pottstown that they are still the powerhouse they were in the 2011 BitV, WBRR took advantage of Pottstown power jam after power jam once Pottstown got into
penalty trouble.Scranton/Wilkes-Barre pulled
away with too many points for Pottstown to catch up with after they got out of
penalty trouble, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre took the semi final win over Pottstown with a
score of 163-136. This moved the 2011 BitV champions to play in the finals.

LVRG's MeBust U Up and D.TainHer take on WBRR's Jammer

In the Battle in
the Valley championship finals, the Lehigh Valley Rollergirls' Special Vixen’s Unit was
seated to play against the 2011 BitV Champions, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Roller
Radicals. It was an all out blocking fest against both teams in the first half.
LVRG Jammers Betty Switch and Lauranimal had their work cut out for them, as
Wilkes-Barre came with force utalizing blockers Smart Cookie and Stevie Nixher.Each team
shared lead jammer status as the score teetered back and forth between the
teams as to who was the leader at any given point.SVU blockers MeBust U Up, Arista Crash and Double Barrel
Hot Gunz did a great job in holding the LVRG inside line tight and minimized the
points that were scored against the Lehigh team. At half time, the score was brutally
reflective of how evenly matched both teams were with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre taking a
small 2 point lead over Lehigh with a score of 62-60.

After a short
half time break, both teams were fired up to end each of their seasons with a
big championship win. Both teams continued to fight and the score continued to
seesaw back and forth for the first 10 minutes into the second half of finals
play.It was an all out war between the
two teams which resulted in not only injuries that took out two of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s
jammers (Pussycat Mauls suffered from a broken ankle), but penalties also took out another ejected Scranton/Wilkes-Barre player, Veronika Gettsberger.LVRG was quick to capitalize on these
advantages as SVU blockers Good Time Charlie and Estelle Hurtz cleared all
paths for their jammers to score grand slam points three jams in a row. Those
points were exactly what the Special Vixen’s Unit needed to gain a lead in the
evenly matched bout. As the clock ran out in the second half, the Lehigh Valley
Rollergirls secured the title as the 2012 Battle in the Valley Champions with a
final score of 131-107 over the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Roller Radicals.

It has been a
great season for the Lehigh Valley Rollergirls. We thank all of our fans for
supporting us, and all of our referees and volunteers. We look forward to the 2013 season, which
starts back up on February 16th, 2013 with an LVRG interleague
bout.Please stay posted to this blog for
updates, the posting of the upcoming 2013 season schedule, and more information
on how to become an official.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

This past
Saturday, the Lehigh Valley Rollergirls’ (LVRG) Hissy Fits competed in a fierce
battle against Vermont’s Green Mountain Derby Dames. The game was tightly
played with both teams battling each jam from the first whistle for lead jammer
status. Rookie Betty Switch performed well in her debut Hissy Fit bout, scoring
many points along side of veteran jammers Vanilla CreamHer and Lauranimal. By the end of the first half, the score was
within 10 points as power blockers Loogie Vuitton and Hell Razin Hussy defended
their pack and kept the team advancing into the second half.

In the second half,
LVRG started playing more aggressively which resulted in the team acquiring an
abundant amount of penalties and players in the penalty box. With more than one
LVRG blocker in the penalty box for multiple jams, the Green Mountain Derby
Dames continued to capitalize on this advantage and picked up points along the
way. MVP of the bout Chikki Sixx and
blocker Lin Diesel did their best to keep Green Mountain from scoring, knowing
that at any given time, LVRG was a power jam away from closing the gap in points
between the teams. However, Vermont’s team held their lead and came out with
the victory, winning 122-91.

The Lehigh Valley
Rollergirls now move to focus on their upcoming end of the season tournament,
the Battle of the Valley (BitV).In the
Battle of the Valley, four teams will bout each other to see who will rise to
become victorious.Below are the seedings
for next week’s BitV on November 10th, 2012, hosted at the Independence
Family Fun Center (4345 Independence Drive, Schnecksville, PA 18078).

About Me

My name is Rose Beef, head coach of the Lehigh Valley Rollergirls.
Created for the skaters by the skaters, the Lehigh Valley Rollergirls are dedicated to providing an opportunity for women athletes to achieve their maximum potential, both athletically and intellectually through the sport of roller derby. Through intensive training, competitive activities and community involvement, the Lehigh Valley Rollergirls strive to embody specific core values including hard work, motivation, perseverance, respect for cultural diversity and continuous personal development. Our members are proud to be positive role models for young people by displaying a sense of good sportsmanship, personal integrity and ethical conduct and look forward to continued growth regionally and nationally.